The K-pop star who came out to the world on stage

Bain was midway via his band’s Los Angeles live performance on a crisp April night time when the music stopped.

In an outsized fur coat and black sun shades, the 24-year-old Okay-pop star informed hundreds of followers: “Earlier than I begin the following tune – I need to share one thing with you guys.”

A quick pause after which: “I am [expletive] proud to be a part of the LGBTQ group!”

The group erupted in applause and screams as Bain broke into Girl Gaga’s satisfaction anthem: “Simply put your paws up, ‘Trigger you have been born this fashion, child”.

In that second, as he got here out to the world, he was not nervous, he tells the BBC in an interview at his studio in Seoul – quite, he had been making an attempt to “sound cool”.

A handful of Okay-pop artists have come out as homosexual in recent times – however none as publicly as Bain.

Even in 2025, that may be a daring transfer in South Korea’s leisure trade, the place stars are held to unattainable requirements. Admitting to even a heterosexual relationship is scandalous.

“There have been some folks within the trade who knew [I was thinking of coming out] and warned me towards it, saying it will be a danger,” Bain says. “And naturally I believed in regards to the danger – that we’d lose followers.

“However then I believed, society is altering… I would achieve greater than I would lose.”

That is the massive query: has he thrown open the door to vary in an trade that has grow to be international however stays deeply rooted in a conservative South Korea?

Bain, whose actual identify is Music Byeonghee, says he was in secondary college, about 12 years previous, when he realised he was homosexual.

Shortly afterwards, he determined to grow to be a Okay-pop trainee however he saved his sexuality a secret – he felt like being homosexual was “not allowed”.

“It wasn’t one thing I questioned… I simply thought I had no selection,” he says. “There was no-one else [around me that was gay]. I believed I might simply faux and preserve going.”

Rich, trendy South Korea continues to be conventional in some ways. Highly effective but conservative church buildings typically see homosexuality as a disability or sin. And same-sex marriage just isn’t legally recognised.

In 2021, Bain made his debut as a part of a six-member boyband, Simply B. They’ve launched a number of albums and have taken half in actuality reveals, incomes a devoted viewers.

However via all of it, the years of hiding part of himself took a toll on Bain.

“I used to be so overwhelmed, I believed possibly I can not be an idol in any respect. I felt I might been hiding a lot. I made a decision to speak to Mother.”

That was about three years in the past. His mom was the primary individual in his household to seek out out: “We talked for an hour, and I lastly stated, ‘I like males greater than ladies.’ That is when she knew.”

Her response was troublesome for him. “Truthfully, she did not prefer it – not at first. She stated she thought I might overcome it, that possibly I might sometime like ladies. She felt unhappy… that I might now face dangerous reactions from others. However [she] stated, ‘You are my son, so I like you, I help you, I like you.’ It was combined. I used to be unhappy, however ultimately grateful she stated she loves me.”

Then his group members and firm started encouraging him to take the leap – and inform the world.

Earlier this yr the band started a world tour, and on the final cease of their US tour, Bain determined to return out on stage.

Since then, the band has been thrust into the highlight – with Bain giving numerous interviews as he shortly grew to become the brand new face of the Korean LGBTQ group.

“I really feel like I’ve modified rather a lot since popping out. I really feel extra assured. Once I meet somebody new, I present who I’m instantly,” he says. “However I additionally really feel unhappy that my id is such a giant deal now.”

Over time, he hopes, folks will cease saying “oh, he is homosexual, however quite, oh, that is simply who he’s”.

When South Korean actor Hong Seok-Cheon got here out as homosexual in 2000, LGBTQ illustration actually entered the nation’s mainstream.

He was the primary Korean superstar to open up about his sexuality – and it got here at a value. He was dropped from TV reveals and ads.

Attitudes have definitely modified since then. A Pew survey from 2019 confirmed that the quantity of people that accepted homosexuality has risen to 44% from 25% in 2002.

And but, solely a handful of different celebrities have come out. In 2018, Holland grew to become the nation’s first overtly homosexual Okay-pop artist and, in 2020, Jiae, a former member of lady group Wassup, got here out as bisexual. Each have stated they discovered it exhausting to signal with a file label consequently.

Bain’s announcement, nonetheless, has been celebrated by each followers and South Korea’s LGBTQ group.

“When somebody like an idol comes out, it provides folks like me a way that we’re not alone,” says a 26-year-old Korean transgender lady, who doesn’t need to be named.

“It brings consolation…makes me assume, possibly I am okay the best way I’m.”

On-line too, a majority of the feedback have been optimistic. One homosexual fan in a YouTube remark wrote how he was inspired by Bain, after feeling “a lot despair” over “the hateful feedback” and discrimination.

“However because of Bain, I’ve discovered the braveness to maintain going.”

Worldwide followers have particularly cheered him on: “After the preliminary shock, I began to cry,” stated Lia, a Okay-pop fan from the US who identifies as lesbian.

“Understanding that Korea nonetheless has some repression towards LGBTQ folks, the bravery and braveness he displayed by popping out…[was] admirable.”

South Korea’s cultural footprint has been rising globally, and that has introduced followers from in every single place, with their very own views and beliefs. They might effectively reshape the Okay-pop trade.

However that may take time. And that’s evident within the vary of feedback in response to Bain’s announcement – disapproval to apathy.

For one, the nation has seen an increase in right-wing, typically avowed anti-feminist beliefs in younger males, who appear to oppose any problem to conventional gender roles.

And people roles stay robust in South Korea. The federal government and the church champion typical household values, encouraging younger folks to marry and have youngsters to allow them to enhance start charges, at present the bottom on the planet.

Given all that, it might not be a shock that homosexuality continues to be a taboo, even in a world trade like Okay-pop.

This can be a world the place even straight {couples} do not discuss their personal lives, says critic Lim Hee-yun.

“Okay-pop has spent practically 25 years avoiding the subject of sexuality [altogether]. Even heterosexual relationships are hidden to guard fan fantasies.”

Bain, he provides, has “challenged that silence in a symbolic and highly effective means. I consider it marks a significant second”.

However he believes followers could have reacted very in another way – “it might need been explosive” – if a member of a world boyband had come out as homosexual.

“Bain’s case was vital, however his group is not as well-known [so] it did not trigger as a lot stir domestically,” Mr Lim says.

Bain has definitely helped increase consciousness, he agrees. “It is a gradual course of however we’re seeing extra public figures talking up or content material being created round these LGBTQ points.”

However any fast change in Okay-pop or the leisure trade is unlikely, in keeping with him.

“It isn’t only a social challenge – it is a market challenge. Male idols normally have a a lot bigger feminine fanbase… [and] if you happen to discover out your favorite male idol is homosexual, that may shatter the phantasm that you might sooner or later be the thing of his affection,” he says.

“So in the event that they do [come out] they danger shaking the muse their fandom is constructed on.”

Bain, nonetheless, says his determination can be price it if even “one individual in Okay-pop good points energy or curiosity” from it.

“I’ve spent so lengthy pretending… I realised that as a result of I got here out, others felt protected to take action too.”

The day he got here out, he recollects, a number of followers approached him, saying they have been homosexual or lesbian, speaking about their very own id.

“They thanked me and I believed to myself ‘I ought to have finished this sooner’.”